Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.

Do YOU Use Your Phone Around Your Child?

At
any given moment, at any given place, when you look around, people are
staring down at their phones. It's as if their glowing screens hold the
key to life. And sadly, many of these entranced people are parents --
with kids who are right nearby. It's no secret that the widespread use
of smartphones and technology are, for lack of a better
phrase, turning us into much crappier, awkward people. But think about
the poor kids! How do you think our obsession with tiny devices is
affecting them? (Hint: Not good.)

A new study has found that when parents who are out to eat with their
children spend the majority of the meal looking at their phone, bad
things happen. As in their kids start acting out (more than kids normally do at restaurants), and ruin the meal for everyone else around them.

That's not enough to make you put down your phone? Check out these other negative effects of using your phone around your kids.

1. Your phone is turning your child into a disobedient brat. Okay, I'm being hyperbolic. But researchers at the Boston Medical Center found that when parents whip out their phones
when eating at a restaurant, particularly a fast food restaurant, their
kids begin acting up. (IE, your phone addiction is ruining everyone in
the whole place's meal!) "It’s just normal childhood behavior," said
parenting coach Toni Schutta. "If I can’t get your attention in a
positive way, I’m going seek it in a negative way."

2. Kids are losing their ability to read people. Because parents can spend up to a whopping 11 hours a day
using electronic devices (ew!), their kids are getting worse at reading
social cues. (How could they not be their when parents
are perfunctorily answering their questions in a monotone voice while
staring at their screen?!) Children in preschool and kindergarten have
sadly become so accustomed to both their parents using their iPhones,
etc., and using them themselves that they're they’re "just not getting
that training" anymore, said Schutta.

3. Your smartphone is turning your child into a no-personality weirdo who refuses to talk. Okay, that's a mean way of phrasing it, but according to a recent study, when parents are constantly on their phones
around their kids, children don't develop vocabulary as they otherwise
would, because, duh, the key to children's conversational skills is
having conversations. It's also been speculated by experts that kids'
social and emotional skills are affected, in addition to their
conversational ones.

4. Kids who are constantly around texting parents are freaked out by other people!
As we all know, the pervasiveness of communicating via text and email
is causing many to lose social skills, but did you ever think of the
impact it might be having on kids? During the course of a 15-year study
of children ages 5 to early 20s, researchers found that the kids who grew up with technology actually feared
(yes, feared!) interaction with others. (Remember when playing with
other kids was the greatest thing on Earth?!) Many of the children in
the study had become so accustomed to "talking" to their parents via
texts that phone conversations even freaked them out!

5. When your nose is buried in your phone, your kid will get hurt. In recent years, ER injury visits for young kids have seen an unsettling upturn,
and it's speculated that it's due to parents being distracted because
of their phones. Think long and hard how you'd feel if your kid fell
down and cut his head because you were looking at somebody's nails on
Instagram. Not cool.

I use my phone for work and fun,but it's off during meal times or family events,nothing is more important than my kids and I can always call someone back later,to me there is a time an place for everything in life,if a call or text is important yes of course I grab it

Yes I do, although I try to minimize it I think all parents including me should minimize it a bit more..we don't do phones at any meal times, when we go to restaurants, it blows me away when I see all family members on phone or electronic devices or even when just the kids are on electronic devices,. That is suppose to be your conversation time interactive with you kids as well.. ive deleted games and social media sites on my phone because they tend to suck me in and take precious time that belongs to them.. hmm now I'm giving it a second thought about having cafemom.. btw not using phone in front of them right now....lol

No. My kids are grown now but my phone is still put away when we're together. I spent the afternoon with my daughter and never looked at my phone once. Later when I got home I checked it and had missed 7 calls. And yet, the world is still turning and I didn't miss anything that couldn't be dealt with later. My phone will never be a part of my time with my kids. That kind of interruption seems rude and unnecessary. When they were little I didn't even have a cell phone. I had no interest in one.

When I'm out and about with my boys, I don't use my phone. Even when it rings, all depending on who's calling, I barely answer.
But when I'm home with my boys, I'm on my cell phone a lot. Mostly on websites and texting.

I have no ability to make phone calls when my kids are around. They take that as a cue that it is time to jump up and down and make as much noise as possible!!!! I will admit, I am guilty of being on my phone a lot, but I usually don't do it at times when we are spending time together. For example, we have a no cellphone rule at the dinner table, we just don't even bring them to the table, this includes restaurants. I play on my phone a bit while I wait for them to get out of school, waiting in the line at the grocery store, while my littlest one is napping, sometimes when they are playing at the park...

Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.